With just 5 regular season weeks left in the NFL’s 2011 campaign, the playoff picture is starting to get very interesting. It’s at this time in the year that a team almost always shoots up the standings to snag a last second wild-card slot, and someone pulls off a choke job and gets left out in the cold. That’s the NFL for you, and it doesn’t get much better than that. Let’s look at the AFC first:
The AFC is, for lack of a better term, nuts. The current top seed in the AFC is the Houston Texans at 8-3. The 6 seed is the Bengals, just a single game back at 7-4. Is that not the definition of madness?
Okay, so that’s one of the best clips ever, but this is really a unique situation. There are 9 teams within 2 games of each other at the top of the AFC, and they’re all legitimate teams. I don’t exactly see any pretenders among their ranks — accept for the Broncos of course.
At this point, I could see the Bengals falling out of the playoff race. They have a difficult closing schedule. They’re at Pittsburgh this weekend, then they host the Texans, and to top everything off, they close out their 2011 season against the Ravens in Cincinnati. Their only semi-easy games come in weeks 15 and 16 against the Rams and Cardinals. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if they only win 2 of their final 5 games.
So, who would replace the Bengals? I can’t believe I’m about to say this, but I think the Broncos will be able to win 4 of their final 5 games and sneak into the playoffs. Their defense is playing lights out football right now, and their quarterback continues to find ways to win games in the 4th quarter. I’m not saying he’s taking them to a Super Bowl any time soon, but anything can happen once you’re in the playoffs.
Now for the NFC:
The NFC is, by all comparisons, much more mellow and controlled than the AFC. The Packers are the undisputed leaders of their conference by 2 games. The wild-card situation is somewhat more chaotic. The Cowboys, although tied with the two wild-card teams, are a full game ahead of the Giants which is keeping them out of the wild-card arena.
I would love to be able to say that the Bears will miss the playoffs. That’s not because I don’t like them, but they just lost their very good, but not great, quarterback. The problem is that I don’t see anyone below them overtaking them.
Is it going to be the Lions? No way. The Lions are pulling off one of their greatest feats as we speak. They first convinced the entire country they were the “real deal,” then they continued to implode in every facet. Yes, the Lions are still firmly in the playoff chase, but they have a tough closing schedule, and they haven’t shown that they can play well in big games. They’re out.
How about the Giants? They’ve also been struggling to find wins of late. They have 2 games looming with the Cowboys in their last 5 games, and it’s those games that will determine the NFC East champion. I tend to think if they get in the playoffs, it’ll be as a division champion, not a wild-card slot. To do that, they’d need to beat the Cowboys twice, and in that scenario, I don’t see the Cowboys overtaking the Bears, or the Falcons for that matter.
